There is something always exciting about choosing a name for a new pet. For example, when I choose a name I like to be a bit different from the norm and looking back I suppose, to a stranger, I have chosen some rather odd names. Smithy Magoo was one, Lollypop another, Buster-Me-Boy, another and Uncle Jack, a name I chose for a gorgeous white kitten. I don’t know why, but all the names seemed to suit.
Of course, I didn’t hesitate in naming Tom Tom ‘s brother. After all, a cat with a large black spot on his nose and his back, had to be named Willie the Spot!
Like his brother Willie the Spot was exceptional. I often used to refer to him as the cat with the three ‘V’s’ – very intelligent, very affectionate and very determined. He proved the latter when I moved house.
Some years after my husband had passed away I decided to move house so that I could be closer to some very dear Polish friends and that move will stay in my memory forever, mostly because I had nine cats and two dogs at the time!
If a cat is confined inside a new home for three weeks, I was told, it would never want to return to the old. Well that advice proved wrong! Within an hour of freeing the cats, I received an irate telephone call from the new owners of my house. ‘Would I come urgently because Willie the Spot was sitting by the swimming pool and refused to move.’ The conversation ended by telling me that the husband was allergic to cat fur!
The house wasn’t far away so within minutes I arrived, opened the rear door to the car and called Willie. When I arrived, I parked my car in the lane and opened the rear door calling to him as I did so. It didn’t take long. A cat, with an expression, ‘I don’t care what they think of me, this is my home’, walked slowly down the drive and jumped on to the back seat, curled himself into a ball and promptly fell asleep.
At the same time each day, I would receive a similar irate call and each day, Willie the Spot, determined as ever, would happily jump on to the back seat, have a meal and sleep until something in his head told him to return once more. By the end of ten days, I was getting desperate wondering if he would ever settle into his new home and, of course, repeatedly having to apologize for the annoyance he was causing.
Fortunately, not long after that Willie decided enough was enough. He had finally had come to the decision that he preferred his new home after all.
Next time I’ll tell you what happened to Buster-Me-Boy during that move, so please come back
Willie the Spot
